Sacramento State’s Multi-Cultural Center is at the center of controversy again as administrators prepare to bring in a consultant from San Diego State to examine the center’s purpose and structure.

In addition to examining these components, James Kitchen, vice president for Student Affairs at San Diego State, will visit Sac State in early 2007 to make a recommendation as to whether the center should have a permanent director or another “staffing pattern,” said Lori Varlotta, vice president for Student Affairs.

Varlotta said Kitchen was chosen because when Multi-Cultural Center employees presented models of other multi-cultural centers for the administration to examine, San Diego State’s was one of the models they suggested.

Kitchen’s visit was originally scheduled for January, but staff of the Multi-Cultural Center voiced concern that his work would be less effective if he were on campus when students were on winter break.

Kitchen will also examine programs in academic affairs that “have a relationship to multi-cultural programs,” Varlotta said.

Students within the Multi-Cultural Center have expressed a desire for new programs related to retention and academic support, and Kitchen will determine if those services are already being offered elsewhere within Sac State, Varlotta said.

Members of Coalition for Cultural Opportunities in Leadership and Overall Retention of Students (C-COLORS), a group formed in September by students and faculty concerned about the condition of the Multi-Cultural Center, have voiced concern over the selection of Kitchen as the consultant, although they agree that a consultant should be hired.

“There should be more people involved with appointing a consultant,” said C-COLORS member A.J. Crisostomo. “We would prefer someone who is more familiar with the campus and who is concerned with just the center.”

Sophomore Edgar Camacho, a C-COLORS member, said that Varlotta selected Kitchen because the two “are actually friends from the past.”

Varlotta denied this claim.

“He’s a colleague . . . By no means do we know each other on a personal level,” Varlotta said.

Kitchen could not be reached for comment by press time.

Members of the Multi-Cultural Center staff met with Varlotta, Patricia Grady, the center’s interim director, faculty and administration on Nov. 29, a meeting Varlotta described as having gone “very well.”

“The students seemed very pleased with the meeting,” Varlotta said.

Members of C-COLORS who were present had a different opinion.

“The meeting was not very good,” Crisostomo said, explaining that they became more dissatisfied after the meeting.

“We came to the conclusion that we don’t agree with the recommendation (to bring Kitchen to Sac State),” Crisostomo said.

At the meeting, Varlotta agreed to hire a graduate student to assist the Multi-Cultural Center with setting up events such as films, lectures and musical performances.

“After discussing it, a graduate student is still a student, and we need someone who is fully committed,” Crisostomo said.

Camacho said Varlotta presented her information as the only possible option, as a “like it or not” course of action.

“(The students) thought Lori (Varlotta) talked down to them at the meeting,” Grady said. “I thought, ‘God, was I at the same meeting?’ I didn’t see evidence of that at the meeting.”

Varlotta said that students could have come to her or any of the other vice presidents with concerns, but none have since the meeting.

A few days after this meeting, blue fliers appeared around campus proclaiming, “We’ve had enough!! What’s wrong with the Multi-Cultural Center?” It lists six points asking how the center’s money is being spent, why there is no permanent director, and criticizing Kitchen. It asks, “Will the center be eliminated?”

“Watch for actions at the beginning of the spring semester,” the flier says. It is signed, “Concerned CSUS Students.”

C-COLORS is denying any involvement with the flier, and Camacho said no employees of the Multi-Cultural Center had a part in its creation, although they do agree with its points.

Varlotta said this is not likely, because the flier contained information only given at the meeting, where only Multi-Cultural Center employees, faculty and staff were present.

“I don’t totally buy it that no one (within the center) is responsible for it,” Grady said, adding that whoever is responsible for the flier should have taken a different route to express his or her discontent.

“If they had issues with Lori, they need to address those directly instead of just going around spewing this distorted thing. . . . The flier really damaged the process and the center,” Grady said.

She said she told students would not allow the flier to be hung in the center or distributed from the center. Employees of the Multi-Cultural Center asked if they would get in trouble if they distributed the fliers elsewhere on campus, Grady said.

In response to the flier, Varlotta said the budget of the Multi-Cultural Center has always been relatively stable, and is not likely to change, even in the midst of budget cuts.

She said the budget for the center is around $100,000 a year, and it has been protected from cuts in the past “because it’s a small unit.”

“That’s what it was in 1990 (when the center was formed), and that’s what it is today,” Varlotta said.

Varlotta said she was very surprised when she saw the flier, and said its creators should have spoken with her directly first.

“Why didn’t they at least shoot me off a quick e-mail before a flier appeared?” she asked.

Director of Student Conduct Leonard Valdez, the previous director of the center, agreed that the creators of the flier should have brought their concerns directly to members of the administration.

“Everybody (involved) wants similar things, and they’re all talking around each other instead of with each other,” Valdez said.

Students could return in the spring to a new interim director of the Multi-Cultural Center if Grady decides not to continue. Her employment as interim director of the Multi-Cultural Center must be renewed every semester, like all temporary positions on campus, and she said she has not yet decided if she will continue to serve as interim director in the spring.

“I don’t need this level of drama in my life,” Grady said. “I had said at one point to the students that it was too over-the-top . . . I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue in this.

“I feel committed to the center and the progress and I want that to move along,” Grady said. “I don’t want that to become about me. . . . I think the most important question ultimately is what’s best for the center . . .”

Varlotta said she hopes that Grady will continue as the center’s interim director until a permanent structure can be formed.

“I asked (Grady) to serve as interim director until appropriate next steps were determined,” Varlotta said.

Camacho said that employees of the center have already discussed possible replacements for Grady if she decides not to continue.

One potential candidate for the position is Francisco Reveles, professor of education leadership and policy studies.

Reveles could not be reached for comment by press time.

Grady has been the interim director of the Multi-Cultural Center since its previous director, Leonard Valdez, became director of Student Conduct in December 2005. She is also the director of the Women’s Resource Center, which shares the same office space as the Multi-Cultural Center.

Cody Kitaura can be reached at [email protected].